Felting needles



United States Patent 3,390,440 FELTING NEEDLES Edson P. Foster, 409 S.29th St., Manitowoc, Wis. 54220 Filed Feb. 17, 1966, Ser. No. 528,158 4Claims. (Cl. 28-4) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A felting needle having abody portion of polygonal cross section in which a pair of adjacent bodyside surfaces form a corner edge extending length-wise of the needle, abarb in the corner edge, and a recess extending from the pointed end ofthe needle to the barb defined by a longitudinal surface disposedentirely inward and substantially parallel to the corner edge.

My present invention relates to improvements in felting needles and moreparticularly to fine gauge felting needles.

In felting needles, and especially fine gauge felting needles, it isessential that the barb or barbs project into the slipstream of fibersfor effecaively interlacing the fibers. The present invention isdirected to a construction in which rather than attempt to provide adesired barb projection resides in providing any suitable barb and openup the throat area for the barb for the desired fiber accessibility.

Accordingly, it is an object of my present invention to provide afelting needle in which the body is provided with a barb carrying ridgehaving a barb therein adjacent the pointed end of the needle, and inwhich an open throat or recess is defined by a longitudinal surfacedisposed entirely inward and substantially parallel to the barb carryingridge extending from the pointed end of the needle to the barb.

I propose to achieve the foregoing object by providing a felting needlehaving a body portion of polygonal cross section, and in which at leastone pair of adjacent side body surfaces extend angularly toward eachother to define a ridge extending lengthwise on the body portion. In apreferred embodiment of the invention the needle body is preferably oftriangular cross-section with one or more ridges containing at least onebarb at the pointed end of the needle, and in which, as aforenoted, anopen throat or recess between the barb and the pointed end of the needleis defined by a longitudinal surface disposed entirely inward andsubstantially parallel with the corner edge.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described inconnection with the accompanying drawing in which FIGURE 1 is anelevational view of a felting needle of my present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a greatly enlarged side elevational view of the body portionof the felting needle adjacent its pointed end;

FIGURE 3 is a cross sectional view taken substantially along the line3-3 on FIGURE 2; and

FIGURE 4 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 4-4 on FIGURE 2.

Referring now to FIGURE 1 of the drawing, there is shown a feltingneedle 5 constructed in accordance with ice the principles of my presentinvention which comprises a body, indicated generally at 6, and a shank,indicated generally at 7.. The lower end of the body is pointed as at 8to facilitate penetration of fibrous material to be compacted in aconventional manner. The upper end of the needle may be bentsubstantially at right angles to the shank 7 to provide a securingelement or ear 9 for clamping between a base member and a clampingmember of a conventional needle plate. As is well known, such a needleplate is adapted to support a plurality of felting needles, such asshown in FIGURE 1, which is reciprocation of the plate in the feltingmachine effects the interlacing and compacting of loose fibrousmaterials.

The felting needles of my present invention may be made of any ordinaryor conventional needle stock having the necessary mechanical strengthas, for example, steel wire. In making up the needles of my presentinvention, preferably originally round steel wire stock is used fromwhich a suitable length is cut to form a needle with a portion thereof,which is to become the body of the needle, swaged as hereinafterdescribed.

Upon reference to FIGURE 4, the cut length of steel stock 10 for theneedle may be disposed bet-ween a pair of split dies disposed onopposite sides of the stock which are advanced toward each other to formthe stock 10 at the body portion of the needle into substantiallytriangular configuration in cross-section and defined by body surfaces14, 15 and 16. The adjacent pairs of such side body surfaces extendangularly toward each other. The aforementioned dies are suitably shapedso as to form a lengthwise extending corner edge or ridge, as indicatedat 17, lying laterally outwardly of two adjacent side body surfaces,

such as side body surfaces 14 and 15. Additional corner edges or ridgesmay, of course, be formed at the intersections defined by any adjacentand intersecting pair of the body surfaces 14, 15 and 16. Afterformation of one or more corner edges or ridges 17 on the body of thefelting needle as above described a barbing recess as indicated at 22 inFIGURE 2, together with a barb, such as at 23, may be formed at the endof the needle adjacent its pointed end 8.

The barb 23 may be of any desired size and configuration and may, forexample, be formed by displacing material in forming the throat orrecess 22. According to the present invention, the throat or recess 22is defined by a longitudinal surface, as indicated at 24 in FIGURES 2and 3, which is disposed entirely inwardly and substantially parallelwith the corner edge or ridge 17 and with such longitudinal surface 24extending to the pointed end 3 of the needle. As previously noted, ifdesired, other of the corner edges of a body of polygonal cross sectionof a felting needle may be formed with throat or recess 22 defined by alongitudinal surface, such as at 24, between the barb 23 and the pointedend of the needle.

While a preferred form of the invention has been shown and described, itwill be obvious that changes and modifications may be made thereinwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

The invention claimed is:

1. A felting needle having a body portion of polygonal cross section inwhich a pair of adjacent body side surfaces extend angularly toward eachother to form a longitudinal corner edge, said body portion having apointed end, a barb in said longitudinal edge, and a recess at said 3 4barb defined by a longitudinal surface disposed entirely longitudinalsurface of said recess extends between said inward and substantiallyparallel to said corner edge. pointed end of said body portion and saidbarb.

2. The felting needle of claim 1 in which said body portion is oftriangular configuration. References Cit d 3. The felling needle ofclaim 1 in which said longitudi- 5 nal surface of said recess extendsbetween said pointed UNITED STATES PATENTS end of said body portion andsaid barb. 3,224,067 12/1965 Foster 284 4. The felting needle of claim 1in which said body portion is of triangular configuration, and in whichsaid LOUIS RIMRODT, Primary Emmi/16f-

